


Necklace

by hellostarlight20



Series: Shall We Dance [6]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Jewelry, Romance, quiet fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-06-01
Packaged: 2018-07-11 11:39:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7048156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellostarlight20/pseuds/hellostarlight20
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He didn’t deserve her and knew it. He was the only one who knew it though.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Necklace

The Doctor looked over his shoulder but Rose already wandered off. She wanted to find something for Jackie and Mickey when they returned to Earth. He sent her off with a kiss—a deep, lingering kiss that mostly hid his nerves—and a credit stick, and his promise to find her after he sorted through this pile of junk.

Er…parts.

Truthfully, the Doctor had what he needed in one of the many, _many_ , storage rooms on the TARDIS. Oh, sure, it never hurt to have extras of certain rare items. And with the TARDIS still in a state of semi-repair, it also didn’t hurt to stock up on the wires that connected her console to her interior.

Still. That was not the true purpose of their trip today.

“She doesn’t suspect a thing,” Jack promised as Rose disappeared into the crowd toward the more touristy area.

The Doctor cleared his throat and tore his gaze from his—his what? Love? Companion? Significant other? His hearts? His Rose?

All of the above.

“Doc?” Jack clasped him on the shoulder and he blinked at the other man.

“Ready?” he asked jovially.

It sounded like a croak. The Doctor grimaced and ran a hand down his face. Nine hundred years and he had no idea how to go about a relationship. He was certain he used to know. Then again, he was certain he used to know how to do a lot of things.

“To pick out a ring?” Jack asked with a salacious wink. “You betcha.”

“Ring?” he repeated. “What do you mean, _ring_?”

Jack looked at him like he’d grown an extra head. “You’re the one,” he said slowly, “who wanted to come here to the Abraxian Market and buy Rose jewelry. You didn’t mean a ring?”

“She does wear rings,” the Doctor admitted and looked back the way Rose disappeared. “But not so much anymore.”

He never asked if those rings held any significance. But she stopped wearing them a while ago, and it didn’t seem important. Would she want a ring? As opposed to a bracelet or necklace?

“You’re not buying her a ring?” Jack repeated, far more incredulous than he ought to sound. Then he shrugged. “Maybe Time Lords don’t do rings. What do you do then?”

“Do?” he repeated like an idiot. “Do what?”

“You’re not going to ask Rose to marry you?” Jack asked and the Doctor’s world froze. He was suddenly unsure what happened to the conversation. “I thought that was why you wanted me along—to help pick out an engagement ring. Isn’t that popular on Earth about now? Rings as signs of bonding?”

“Ring?” he repeated faintly. He had to sit down. He did feel a little faint. “I’m not buying her a ring. I mean if she wants a ring but I’m not—that is I hadn’t—she hasn’t said anything—”

“Woah!” Jack held up his hands in surrender. Then squinted at him and, carefully, took the Doctor’s arm and guided him to a bench. “Sit down, Doctor.”

“Did she say she wanted a ring?” the Doctor asked, the words forced through his throat.

“No.” Jack said it so firmly, the Doctor believed him. “I just thought—when you said you wanted to come to Abraxia, home to the finest jewelry in the quadrant, I thought you wanted…”

The Doctor stared at him blankly and Jack merely shook his head. He cleared his throat and looked around awkwardly. Then Jack took a deep breath and nodded.

“Now,” Jack continued in a tone that once more bordered on the salacious. “If you meant jewelry of the _sexual_ kind—” the Doctor stood, an instinctual movement to stop Jack from uttering anything about sexual jewelry, sex of any kind, and Rose—“I believe there’s a great shop three…maybe four blocks that way.” The Doctor who narrowed his eyes and growled a warning. “I’d think that was something you’d want to pick out with Rose, but…”

Jack shrugged and steered him in that direction and the Doctor, too stunned at the turn this conversation took, followed for several steps too many.

“I highly recommend the—”

“I meant,” the Doctor snapped, “a necklace or bracelet or pair of earrings.”

He was unwilling to even _hear_ what Jack recommended. Though the Doctor supposed Jack was the foremost expert. Still, not the time, the place, and frankly he didn’t even want Jack _thinking_ about Rose in any sort of sexual position, jewelry or otherwise.

Jack stopped and nodded, unperturbed. “You want the Vesuvian gold?” He turned to the right and contemplated the streets that way. “Or the Calerian titanium?” He turned left with a nod.

The Doctor stopped and sighed, once more running a hand over his face, scraping his fingers through is shorn hair. “I used to be so good at this,” he grumbled.

“Shopping?” Jack eyed him speculatively. “Or women?” He shrugged. “Or relationships at all?”

He glared but declined to comment. Instead he looked over his shoulder to where Rose disappeared. “She means the world to me, Jack. The entire universe.”

“I know she does,” Jack said quietly. “Why do you want to but her jewelry? Rose isn’t exactly the showy type.”

The Doctor didn’t look at him, only shook his head. “I—”

To show her how much she meant. To show her how dearly he held her to him, close to his hearts. To show her he wasn’t just an alien with blood on his hands. That he was a man who cared for her more than he thought possible. More than he thought she even knew.

“Let’s go, Doc,” Jack said softly. “I’m sure we’ll find something for her.”

Nodding, the Doctor followed Jack to the left and the Calerian titanium. Something strong like his Rose.

 ********  
The necklace felt thin and delicate in his hands. His fingers felt too large and too clumsy and so very inelegant. Not at all like the titanium necklace he bought Rose that morning. Jack assured him Rose would love it but that wasn’t the problem.

She stood before him, dressed in a creation of fiery reds and burning blues, a formfitting, floor length dress with a slit up her right thigh that teased him with hints of what lay beneath. The dress showed off her rounded hips and curved bum and he was already jealous of anyone who saw her. The bodice hugged her breasts, pushed them up just enough that he knew the round golden pendant would nestle perfectly between them.

“You’re staring,” Rose said and turned from her vanity mirror. “The dress too much?” She stood and frowned at her gown. “The TARDIS suggested it; I thought it looked like that sunset we saw on …what was that planet? The one with the blue grass?”

“Atroceruleous.” The Doctor cleared his throat. “An old Latin word for dark blue, since so much of the planet is varying shades of blue.”

He meant to go into a long ramble about gases in the atmosphere, but Rose grinned up at him, her tongue caught between her teeth. She sauntered across their bedroom floor to where he stood, like a lump, hand clenched around her necklace.

His thick, ham-fisted hand around the delicately woven perfection he bought for Rose.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered and took his hand.

The Doctor stared down at her, longing and tenderness and devotion and passion rising from the very depths of him, so raw and unfettered he nearly drowned. He watched her for a long minute, letting the seconds play out and wind around them.

“Doctor?” Rose frowned and her fingers loosened around his. “You’re not making any sense. I don’t understand…”

By reflex, he tightened his hold on her hand and cleared his emotions. He didn’t want her to have the wrong idea. He already couldn’t say it, tell her with words and coherent sentences how he felt. He didn’t want her getting the wrong idea over their telepathic connection.

“I bought you something on Abraxia.” He cleared his throat awkwardly and opened his too big, too rough hand.

“Oh.” Rose’s breath caught. She carefully took the necklace, fingertips brushing his palm.

The Doctor did not shiver at the graceful brush of her fingers, the gentle touch of her skin on his. But it was a close thing. She looked up at him, eyes wide and shining with tears. His hearts stopped.

“Rose—”

“I love it,” she insisted before he managed to even think of an excuse, a reply, anything to stumble through.

She took his hand again, and the Doctor was flooded by the happiness, the joy and warmth and _love_ Rose felt for him. It danced along his nerves like a waltz, slow and seductive and reeling him ever closer.

“You didn’t have to get me anything.” She stood on tiptoes and kissed his cheek, the spot between his mouth and his mole she claimed as hers.

She claimed all of him as hers. He willingly obliged.

“I love it, Doctor,” she said.

He heard: _I love you_.

The Doctor cleared his throat. “Turn around,” he said gruffly.

His fingers might be too large for the delicacy that was Rose Tyler, but they worked the clasp just fine. He trailed his fingers along the backs of her shoulders, down her arms. Rose shivered at his touch and leaned back, her head nestled on his chest between his hearts.

“We don’t have to see the color-orchestra,” she whispered and took his hands in hers. “I know you dressed in a tux just for me.” She turned her head slightly and grinned wickedly up at him. “And I’m certain the music as vibrant colors in the sky is beautiful,” Rose continued, “but so is your body.”

“Rose Tyler,” he said, each syllable a caress of her name as well as a confession of his feelings. “After the concert, I’ll show you how beautiful your body is. I’ll worship your body,” he promised and kissed along her shoulders, the back of her neck.

“Doctor,” she sighed and turned in his arms. “I look forward to it.”

“Get your shoes,” he instructed but kissed her deeply, releasing all his barriers as he drew her closer. “Let’s go to the concert. I want to make love to you beneath the musically painted sky.”

“As you wish,” she whispered and kissed him again. “I love you.”


End file.
